


Evil Author Day 2017 'This Heart of Mine'

by Daisy_May



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M, Minor Character Death, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-17
Updated: 2017-02-17
Packaged: 2018-09-25 03:24:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,676
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9800666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daisy_May/pseuds/Daisy_May
Summary: John Sheppard sits in the chair at the Ancient Outpost on Earth...Two excerpts from a much longer work that may or may not ever be finished.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Canon is my bitch and does as it's told.

As John and his team emerged from the puddle of the Stargate, John could immediately sense something was wrong. His eyes swept around the gateroom, taking in the stance of the marines on duty and the sense of…pissed-off-ness that emanated from them. He stopped, abruptly, and Rodney - who had been grousing about stone age planets - stumbled into the back of him.

‘Oooof! Hey! I was only saying that missions that mean four days away should….’ He ground to a holt and himself looked around at the marines on duty. ‘What’s crept up their ass and died?’

John ignored him and raised his eyes to the command balcony where Elizabeth was standing, looking down at them, one hand clutching the elbow of the other arm. Without taking his eyes from the face of the expedition leader he spoke sharply;

‘Captain Stackhouse! Report!’

Stackhouse ran lightly down the stairs from the balcony and came to attention in front of his commanding officer.

‘Welcome back, Sir. Might I suggest we take this to your office?’

John locked eyes with him for a moment, unsmiling, then nodded briefly.

‘Ten minutes. We need to go to the infirmary.’ He turn around and glanced at the silent members of AT-1, his eyes narrowing as he looked at his Athosian teammate.

‘Teyla?’ he asked quietly.

‘John. I…I sense _wraith!_ But how…?’

John swung back round and glared up at Elizabeth.

‘Something you want to tell me Dr. Weir?’

‘Infirmary first Colonel. You should know Mission Protocols by now,’ she reprimanded colouring slightly. ‘Report immediately to my office when you’re through,’ and she turned away brusquely.

Sensing Rodney was about to speak, John grabbed his arm and, motioning to Teyla and Ronan with a jerk of his head, they left the gateroom to head for the infirmary.

The tension was even greater in the medical unit than it had been in the gateroom. Carson looked angry and the young doctor, who John privately thought _way_ too young to be part of a competent medical team, had red eyes.

‘Colonel,’ Carson greeted him. ‘Do you want to take your team through there and get started on the check-ups?’

He motioned in the direction of the kid…’ _Doctor’_ John told himself sternly.

‘Ah, actually Doc, I’d prefer…’ he began and was surprised when Carson interrupted him with a sigh.

‘Och, laddie, you’ve heard then?’

Rodney moved to John’s side.

‘Heard what Carson? What’s happened since we left? The whole place is like a _morgue!_ What on…?’ Rodney ran down as Carson flinched at the word. ‘Carson!’

Carson pressed his lips together and glanced towards Keller.

‘Come into my office then, all of you.’

John’s hand touched the radio he’d fixed into his ear as they’d made their way to the infirmary and clicked it once.

‘Stackhouse? Can you come to Dr Beckett’s office please?’

Carson nodded as he herded them into his private office, the door shutting with an audible ‘ _click_ ’ once they were all inside.

‘Probably a good idea Colonel,’ was all he said but all John’s senses were on alert.

They sat - or stood in Ronan’s case - and waited in silence for a couple of minutes until there was a sharp knock and the door opened for Stackhouse and Markham to enter. John’s eyebrows raised as he looked at them.

‘Both of you?’

Markham flushed slightly but stood his ground and simply answered

‘Sir.’

It was a squeeze with seven people in Carson’s office but Stackhouse moved to stand next to Carson’s desk while his fellow captain took up a position against the back wall. John glanced between the two of them, then fixed his eyes upon Carson Beckett.

‘So Doc. Do you want to explain why my men are all on a knife edge and Teyla can sense _wraith_ on my city?’

Carson bowed his head for a moment, then lifted it and firmly met John’s gaze.

‘I blame myself laddie, I’m very sorry.’

‘ _Carson!_ ’ barked John, in a voice few of those in the office had ever heard him use before.

Carson’s whole body jumped for a moment, then he slowly folded into his chair, almost melting in defeat.

‘Jennifer Keller’s been asking for weeks to have a wraith brought back to the city for her to study. She’s not allowed to go off world since she refuses to even handle a gun, let alone pass your test,’ he told a shocked John Sheppard.

Rodney made a slight noise and John turned to him.

‘You knew about this?’

Rodney nodded grimly. ‘All research proposals have to be signed off by me, medical as well as scientific.’

John opened his mouth to speak but Rodney continued:

‘She’s been told, by both Carson and myself, that it will never be permitted, but I guess she took it over our heads?’ he questioned Carson who nodded.

‘Almost before the gate shut off when you left the other day she went to Dr Weir and persuaded her that research on a ‘live wraith’,’ he spat the words in distaste, ‘was the only way to make any progress on any sort of genome sequencing that might provide useful information.’ He paused, and Stackhouse took up the explanation.

‘I was called to Dr Weir’s office and ordered to take a group of marines out and capture a wraith. And then bring it back to the city,’ he added to clarify When I refused, she ordered Markham’ - he gestured towards his fellow captain leaning against the wall, - ‘to put me in the brig and take over command until you returned. When I tried to say that you would never permit us to bring a wraith onto the city, she just said you’d have to do as she ordered.’

By this point John was sitting ramrod straight in his chair, Rodney’s hand on his arm clearly the only thing preventing him from leaping to his feet. Stackhouse met John’s eyes and John gave a slight nod to him to continue.

‘Markham refused to follow _either_ order so she called Lt Ford and told him to take his team off-world to capture a wraith, and said she had your permission for it. When we tried to argue she told Ford we were trying to undermine both her _and_ you and suggested he lock us both up. The poor kid was really confused and said he couldn’t lock us up, so she said she was the leader of this expedition and had General O’Neill’s full support and he was to do as he was told.’

Markham spoke up from the back of the room while John began vibrating in anger.

‘It was obvious she was going to get _someone_ to go and catch her a wraith and we both thought she’d have no compunction about sending some scientists off world if she thought they’d do what she wanted. Sir,’ and here he hesitated and made his way to stand beside Stackhouse. ‘I think Dr Weir’s lost her mind a bit.’

There was a short silence as the people in Carson’s office considered that remark, broken by John simply saying:

‘Go on Jason.’

With a deep breath, Markham continued. ‘Ford looked absolutely panic stricken so I said we’d go and get our teams ready, ours and Ford’s, and Dr Weir, well, she just let us go. Marcus called both of our teams to the ready room and told them we were going to capture a wraith for Dr Weir. We didn’t know that Dr Keller had asked for it.’ He shook his head and closed his eyes.

After a quick glance at his friend, Stackhouse took over

’We’ve done AAR’s, Sir. We’ve both made full reports.’

‘Just give me the main points, Marcus,’ John said gently.

‘We, Jason and me, we thought we’d be better off with more rather than less so we called for AR6 as well. That made fourteen of us and we loaded up with every weapon we could think of. We dialled into P7X 952, the one Ronan said…’

‘Main points Marcus,’ John repeated, still in a soft voice.

Stackhouse took a deep breath.

‘We managed to stun one with a Zat You know… Yeah, well. It was a miracle no one was injured and we’d taken a Jumper so we got the…the… _thing_ into it and Jase took off and we just flew around a bit, cloaked and managed to dial out and get through to Old Athos. We didn’t want to go to the Alpha or Beta site and I could remember the address for… Anyway, we got back to the city in one piece and we’d managed to cuff the wraith _and_ tie his hands behind him and we put him in the wraith cage. Weir was…was…she was really happy and so was Keller and we couldn’t understand and…’

‘Take a breath, Marcus.’

‘It all seemed all right. None of us were happy about having a wraith on the city but it seemed safely locked away and its feeding hand was tied and we told Weir and we told Keller and…and…’

‘Keller sent Ford into the cage to untie its hands.’ Carson spoke in a dull voice. ‘The stupid little bitch told him it was _cruel_ to keep it tied up and sent Ford in to untie it. And him being young and her being blond and pretty with nice tits… Before anyone could stop him, Ford had cut the hand ties and the wraith just… grabbed him.’ There was a shocked silence. ‘And the stupid bitch shouted “don’t hurt him” _to the marines who shot it! She told them not to shoot the wraith!_ Ford was dead in seconds. Seconds. Drained just like… _She told them not to hurt it!_ ’

Rodney clamped his hand over his mouth and rushed out of the door, but before he could get to a bathroom, he was violently ill all over the infirmary floor. Carson leapt to his feet but John was there first and he held Rodney tightly as the man threw up again and again. Keller appeared in his peripheral vision as though to touch Rodney and John just pointed at her.

‘Get her away from him! Get her away from anyone! Lock her in her room and post a guard. She doesn’t speak to anyone!’

Keller burst into tears but Stackhouse took her arm and pulled her away, relief that someone senior could now make the decisions clear on his face.

‘Markham, get Bates up here and tell him to set a guard. Tell him…’

‘Don’t tell him anything!’

Elizabeth Weir appeared in the doorway.

‘Colonel, you have no authority to order any of the civilian staff be taken anywhere. In fact as of this minute you have no authority of any kind on this city. Captain Stackhouse, you will be in charge of the military until we can make contact with Earth. You will…’ She broke off and stared at the Captain who had begun to speak. ‘I beg your pardon?’

‘I said no ma’am,’ Stackhouse replied standing ramrod straight, although not to attention John noticed abstractly.

‘It’s all right Marcus,’ John said quietly, soothing the still retching Rodney.

‘Sir?’

‘I am ordering you…’ she tried again but Stackhouse remained resolute:

‘No ma’am.’

Weir opened her mouth to try again but Stackhouse simply turned away from her and pulled Keller, whose arm he was still gripping, away from the group as though to leave the infirmary and Markham clicked on his radio to call for Bates, the head of security. Weir moved to place herself in front of the two captains, but Markham grasped her wrist and held it firmly.

‘Doc?’ he called to Carson, who was shifting from foot to foot, uncertain of just what he should be doing. ‘I don’t think Dr Weir is feeling too good.’

As Elizabeth Weir was by this point trying to scratch Markham’s face with the fingernails of her free hand, John privately thought this somewhat of an understatement. Carson stepped forward to take Weir’s flailing arm and helped the captain to move her into one of the small isolation rooms. Dr Biro - who had been watching the scene with a look of grim satisfaction on her face - entered the room behind the two men, a syringe clutched in her hand.

 

Half an hour later John was sitting beside a hospital bed where his best friend lay sleeping. John clutched Rodney’s left hand in his own and idly rubbed his thumb over the fingers of the lax hand. Carson had been unable to stop the violent retching of the Chief Science Officer and had instead helped John to carry their friend into an isolation room where Irina Biro had once again appeared with a sedative loaded syringe. Rodney had quickly succumbed to sleep, although his breath still hitched occasionally, and despite the crisis on the city, John wanted to ensure his friend was settled before leaving to deal with the mayhem outside the infirmary.

‘He’ll be asleep for a few hours yet, laddie.’ Carson spoke from behind him.

‘I know,’ sighed John. ‘I’m just not keen on leaving to deal with what’s out there,’ he nodded in the direction of the door. ‘And I wanted to make sure he’s really okay.’

‘The vomiting was a reaction to the news about poor Ford and then he had a panic attack and couldn’t stop himself,’ Carson explained. ‘Sedating him was really the best thing to do.’

‘I know,’ John repeated. ‘But seriously, keep those syringes away from Biro. I don’t want her getting too trigger-happy.’

Carson laughed, then immediately sobered. ‘I’m sorry Colonel. That was inappropriate.’

John gave him a small, sad smile. ‘Not inappropriate. Ford enjoyed a joke like the best of us.’

‘Aye’ Carson agreed. ‘He always put me in mind of a small puppy. Over eager and bouncy, and likely to piddle at any moment! .’

John just nodded and turned his head back to his sleeping teammate. Then, almost as though he couldn’t help himself, he reached over and gently stroked Rodney’s cheek. Carson’s eyes widened in comprehension as several pieces of jigsaw fell into place and them he smiled warmly at John.

‘You love him,’ he said quietly.

John just looked at him.

‘I would never say anything,’ Carson promised. ‘We doctors understand the meaning of confidentiality.’

John nodded and stroked Rodney’s cheek again.

‘I don’t know whether to tell him and ruin the best friendship I’ve ever had, or just keep quiet and enjoy the best friendship I’ve ever had,’ he told the doctor smiling ruefully. Carson smiled back at him.

‘Trust your heart laddie.’

John nodded again, then got to his feet and stretched. ‘I have to go and sort out Weir and Keller and that damned wraith. Then I have to speak to my men. Ford…’ he broke off, uncertain of what to say.

‘Irina Biro has taken care of him. We’ve made a morgue in a suite just off the infirmary where we can lower the temperature sufficiently. I suspect that’s what it was used for in the past.’

‘I’d like to be able to repatriate the bodies if…when we make contact with the SGC,’ John informed him. ‘Where we can, of course.’

‘We’ll have to make sure the caskets can’t be opened,’ Carson mused, ‘but the SGC has protocols for the strangest of things.’

‘I’ll speak to Stackhouse and Markham about a memorial service in a few days. I need to get the Weir and Keller stuff settled first.’

‘Rather you than me laddie,’ was all Carson said.

With a last touch of Rodney’s cheek, John turned and Carson could see the change from friend and hopeful lover to commanding officer. His friend John was gone Colonel Sheppard was now ready to take control of the situation.

 

John took a deep breath as he left the infirmary, trying to sort in his mind just what had to be done. Weir was safely sedated in an isolation room and he had no doubts that Keller would be in her quarters with a guard on her door. That left the wraith to be dealt with, and so he stepped into the transporter near to the entrance of the infirmary and touched the location map on the wall to take him to the transporter nearest to the brig in the lower levels of the central tower.

Entering the brig, he was unsurprised to see four marines guarding the force field protected cage, nor that all four had weapons pointing at the… _thing_ inside the cage. No wraith could be treated lightly, but a recently fed wraith was a massive threat, and the Colonel was pleased to see that his men were taking extra care. The wraith was once again handcuffed and its hands were tied behind its back. Two marines pointed P90s and two pointed goa’uld zat’nik’tels at it - and John sent mental thanks to General O’Neill for suggesting that they bring the extremely useful zats with them. How the weapons were made was unclear, but a single shot to stun and a double shot to kill worked on wraith just as well as it did on humans. John had asked Rodney to look into how the zats worked to see if they couldn’t use the technology on larger targets, such as wraith hive ships, but Weir had countermanded the request saying it wasn’t a priority. Rodney, however, had informed John that he and Radek were looking into it as a private project, away from the eyes and ears of Weir and her sycophants.

‘Sergeant Poole! Report!’

All four marines came quickly to attention but the Colonel made a motion which they correctly interpreted as ‘at ease’.

‘Sir!’ Chris Poole began. ‘We secured the prisoner after…’ He paused and swallowed. ‘After it killed Lieutenant Ford, and I requested that Corporal James and Corporal Finley join myself and Private Smith to guard it. Sir, we… I…’

‘I know Chris. It’s fucked up. It’s all fucked up,’ John replied gently. Chris Poole had been with him in Afghanistan when the mission had gone to hell and back. He was a good man and a good marine. ‘It should never have been brought onto the base, and it will never happen again, no matter who orders you to capture one. As of right now, my standing orders are that wraith must be shot and killed on sight.’ He sighed. The next part wasn’t going to be easy. ‘Gentlemen, I need you to leave the room now please. Finley? Give me your zat.’

The four marines gazed at their commanding officer in shock, then Chris Poole understood what was to happen. ‘Sir, no. I’ll do it’

‘No Chris. It has to be me.’

‘Sir…’

‘Stand down Marines!’

Instant obedience to an order was ingrained in every member of the armed services, but with a marine - it seemed to run much deeper than usual. John was the first to admit that he had frequently questioned - even if silently - the orders of a number of his COs, but then they had all been stupid orders. Perhaps ordering his men to leave him alone with a recently fed wraith was a stupid order, even if said wraith was tied and handcuffed. It needed to be done though. John would not allow any of his men - any _more_ of his men - to suffer because of a wraith, not when he could prevent it. It needed to be killed and he was going to be the one to kill it and let the consequences fall upon him later.

The four marines exited the brig leaving him alone with the prisoner. It snarled - or possibly smiled, he couldn’t tell - at him. John walked close to the cage and fired the zat once, twice, and the wraith fell dead to the floor. He shot it twice again just to make sure. Taking a deep breath he turned and left the room, not surprised to find four pissed off marines standing outside the door.

‘I think it must have eaten something that disagreed with it,’ was all he said, handing the zat back to Corporal Finley.

‘Sir, yes sir!’ was his only reply.

John watched as the four marines went back to their posts inside the room, taking up the positions they had held before he had joined them, as if nothing had happened. He smiled grimly and went to sort out his next problem.

 

As John made his way to his office, he wondered if he could deal with the Keller problem in the same way he’d dealt with the wraith. He doubted if any of the military would kick up a fuss. Just as he reached his office his radio activated and he heard Carson Becket’s voice.

‘Colonel Sheppard. I never got chance to clear you from medical after your mission. Can you report to the infirmary please?’

He did an about turn and headed off to see Carson again.

To his surprise, when he entered the infirmary, he saw Radek Zelenka sitting in Carson’s office, typing madly away on his computer. He glanced up as Carson steered John into his office, and smiled.

‘Ah, Colonel. I am here to fix Dr Becket’s malfunctioning equipment, yes?’

‘Umm, yeah okay,’ was John’s bemused reply, but a wink from Radek made him narrow his eyes. ‘Radek?’ John drawled.

‘Yes, yes Colonel. Appears that Dr Becket noticed cameras not working in infirmary. I have come to check and see also if cameras in other parts of city working properly. Unfortunately, appears that cameras on Level Two not working either.’

‘Level Two?’ John repeated. ‘Aren’t they the ones…’

‘Near brig, yes. They have not worked for last twenty minutes or so. Dr McKay will be very angry when he wakes from nap but I have fixed everything. Yes?’

‘Radek, you sly…’

‘Working now Colonel,’ Radek sing songed in a manner reminiscent of Rodney when he didn’t want to answer stupid questions.

John just smiled while he let Carson take his blood pressure and pulse rate, along with a syringe of blood. Having paused to make notes on his computer and hand off the blood sample to a nurse, Carson closed the door to his office and got straight to the point.

‘What are we going to do about Dr. Weir?’

John raised his eyebrows in surprise..’Dr Becket,’ he began, but Carson interrupted him.

‘I think laddie, if we’re going to plot sedition, you might call me Carson.’

John’s eyebrows were now hidden in his hair line. ‘Errm, are we plotting sedition?’ he questioned uncertainly.

‘Weir has gone too far this time’ Radek put in his two cents.

‘I always thought you had the hots for her,’ John admitted.

Radek laughed. ‘She is sexy woman - until she opens her mouth. Then is prejudiced bitch. She prefers American scientists over foreign ones - even Rodney she treats as a foreigner. She also refuses to listen to anything Teyla or Ronan might suggest.’

John thought for a moment, then realised that it was true. Weir always spoke to the ‘foreign’ scientists slightly slower and slightly louder - even Rodney. He hadn’t noticed that she ignored Teyla and Ronan though. He’d have to watch out for that - although Weir would no longer be in charge of the expedition, she would still be very useful when treaties needed to be arranged. And to be frank, the expedition had no space for passengers. He decided that this was the time to let Becket and Zelenka know Weir was being relieved of command.

When he explained that General O’Neill had given him papers making him leader of the expedition if he felt the situation warranted it, neither man made more comment then “Good” from Becket and “is much better this way” from Zelenka. The surprise must have shown upon his face as Becket patted him on the arm.

‘I think Dr Weir is out of her depth and frightened,’ he said to John. ‘She was the wrong person to put in charge of an international expedition, especially one which ended up in a war zone. To be honest, I expected you to take over before now. I expected it after the fiasco of her going off-world without telling you.’

Zelenka nodded his head in agreement.

‘I almost did take over then,’ John admitted. I certainly never trusted her again, and I don’t think my men did either. I decided to give her another chance though, so it’s really my fault that Ford was killed.’

Carson slapped his hand on the desk, hard. ‘Rubbish man! Is it my fault that Ford was killed?’

‘No, Carson! Of course not!’ John exclaimed

‘I suggested that Keller be hired for the expedition. Using your logic that makes it my fault.’

‘No! You had no idea she was going to demand a wraith be brought back to the city. We had no idea wraith even existed when we came,’ John argued.

‘Then you leaving Weir in charge and her ordering your men to catch a wraith can’t be your fault. She was appointed commander of the expedition by the IOA. General O’Neill made sure I knew that you had his permission to take over if the situation warranted it. If I had disagreed with your decision to let her be after she went off-world, I could have said so.’ Carson sat back in his chair with his arms folded, an expression of stubbornness on his face.

John looked at him in shock. ‘I had no idea O’Neill spoke to you.’

‘Och laddie. The man gave you permission to stage a military coup. Of course he made sure I knew about it so I wouldn’t fight you, unless I thought you were power mad.’

‘Wow!’ John sat back himself and gazed at his companions. ‘Radek, did you know?’

‘Of course Colonel. For same reasons,’ the wiry haired Czech replied.

‘Wow!’ John repeated. ‘I knew Rodney knew. I was there when the general told him, but I didn’t realise he’d spoken to you two. Who else knows?’

Radek shrugged. ‘Just Carson, Rodney and myself. We’re the department heads or seconds and we needed to know. Anymore people and word could have easily got back to Weir. What will you do with her?’

John shook his head. ‘Damned if I know. If I have her locked in her room, it ties up men guarding her. And she might…’ he broke off. ‘Radek?’ he drawled gazing intently at the man. Zelenka gazed back innocently. ‘Why has your English suddenly become much better?’

Carson burst out laughing and Radek Zelenka grinned.

‘I have lived in the US for over fifteen years. If my English was really as bad as I made out, I would never have been able to study or to teach while I was studying. However, many people hear ‘Czech’ and think ‘idiot’.’ Radek shrugged. ‘I just let them.’

‘You sneaky, double dealing…’ John seemed lost for words while Carson and Radek just sat and laughed. ‘So when you and Rodney are yelling at each other and you’re yelling in Czech and he’s yelling in English…’

‘Rodney speaks Czech as well as I speak English, Colonel. He’s a massive genius. He speaks several languages fluently.’

John simply stared at him, speechless. Then his eyes narrowed. ‘What else have you kept secret from me? What else am I in the dark about?’

Both Radek and Carson burst out laughing. ‘Many, many things I suspect Colonel. But nothing that you need worry your head about,’ Radek informed him with a smirk. Then he sobered. ‘I doubt Weir will accept being taken from command easily.’

John shook his head. ‘I doubt it too, but there is no way that she can stay as head of the expedition now. My men certainly would never respect her, even if I ordered them to, and I doubt the scientists would either. They understand just how vulnerable we are out here on our own. We all need to be able to trust each other.’


End file.
